But that had been before the interminable waste of the Grass War and the long train of young women and men in front of my desk with the trinkets they thought would give them a chance of not becoming food for crows in a field somewhere.

Benjamin C. Kinney is a neuroscientist, SFF writer, graduate of the Viable Paradise workshop, and the Assistant Editor of Escape Pod. His fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Flash Fiction Online, Compelling Science Fiction, and more. He lives in St. Louis with two cats and a spacefaring wife, but he’s best found online at benjaminckinney.com or on Twitter @BenCKinney.